Our Story

Brixton Brewery is one of London’s established craft breweries, making beer in the heart of one of London’s most colourful and famous neighbourhoods. We were founded in 2013 by two local couples, Jez and Libby and Mike and Xochitl, but our shared passion for beer started years before that, when we met in the old Hive Bar (now Craft Beer Co. Brixton), and bonded over newborn babies, and a dream of opening a brewery. We reckoned that every great neighbourhood deserves a great brewery, and we wanted to bring one to Brixton.

Xochitl, Mike, Libby, Jez

WE’RE A MICROBREWERY MAKING THE KIND OF GUTSY, FLAVOURFUL BEER WE WANT TO DRINK IN THE AREA WE LOVE. WE’RE DOING OUR BIT TO PUT OUR PART OF SOUTH LONDON ON THE MAP FOR THOSE WHO APPRECIATE DISTINCTIVE, HANDCRAFTED BEERS.

Our beer

Our beer is hand crafted in small batches. We draw on traditional techniques, flavours and ingredients, with a dash of bold New World flair for distinctiveness. We look to America and Europe for inspiration but we’re rooted in our very British appreciation of ale.

All of our brews are unfiltered and unpasteurised for maximum flavour and freshness. Our core range is best characterised by bitterness, balanced by rich maltiness and rounded out with hop aromas and flavours. We love experimenting with big, interesting flavours, but we’re always seeking balance.

We source our ingredients locally and further afield from suppliers who share our commitment to quality. Our limited edition Effra Ale was brewed using hops grown less than a kilometre from our door by Brixton’s Urban Hop Growers. Our Lavarush Stout uses local roaster Volcano Coffee Works’s fair trade beans for added kick. We teamed up with award-winning chef Tim Anderson to produce Market Saison using ingredients from Brixton Market.

Our ethos

We’re a family-run community business. Pretty much no one escapes lending a hand. Visiting houseguests and even the kids and the grandparents pitch in bottling, labelling, scrubbing equipment and lifting heavy things.

OUR RAILWAY ARCH BREWERY AND TAP ROOM IS A STONE’S THROW FROM BRIXTON’S RESURGENT MARKET DISTRICT. IN OUR EARLY DAYS WE MADE MOST OF OUR DELIVERIES ON FOOT TO LOCAL SHOPS AND RESTAURANTS. YOU CAN NOW FIND OUR BEER IN EVERY CORNER OF LONDON AND BEYOND.

The personal touch means that we got to know our area and our customers well so we’re confident that when our beers are out there in the big bad world, they stand up – and stand out – for themselves. We’re working hard to brew the kind of beers and build the kind of business that Brixton can be proud of. We’re inspired by the manic energy of the area, with all its history, noise, aromas, and vibrant mix of cultures and people. We love being a part of it, and we want to share a little piece with you.

Our Beers

Our Beers are unfiltered, unpasteurised, vegan-friendly and full of flavour.

Named after the Effra river, which now flows beneath urban Brixton, this ale is perfect for deep thirsts.

Effra Ale

Inspired by Electric Avenue, the beating heart of Brixton, it’s an assault on the senses – much like its namesake.

Electric I.P.A.

Reliance Pale Ale raises a glass to the art deco arches of Reliance Arcade where Brixton’s local artisans still practise their craft. Reliance proves again that if you want the real deal, you have to make it by hand.

Reliance Pale Ale

Our stout salutes Brixton’s Windrush Square,named after the MV Empire Windrush – the ship that brought the first wave of West Indian immigrants to South London in 1948. So take a sip and say cheers to the vibrant Caribbean culture that makes Brixton come alive.

Windrush Stout

Latest from the Blog

The Blog

As we announce an exciting partnership to build a new brewery in Brixton, we look back on how we got to where we are, and forward to the next step on our journey… Like so many of the good things in life, it all started over a pint. We met in 2010 in Brixton’s former…

It’s one of Brixton’s many hidden corners with a story to tell, yet people stream past it everyday without even noticing. But look up through the trees near the railway bridge at Coldharbour Lane, with the Barrier Block estate looming behind you, on the side of Carlton Mansions, and you’ll discover a fading piece of…

Meet the Brewer: Brixton Brewery Jez, Libby, Xochitl and Mike started Brixton Brewery back in 2013 and quickly established themselves as a mainstay of the UK craft brewing scene. Taking inspiration from the explosion of UK brewing at the time, and influenced by both US and European styles of beer, we love that the vibrancy of SW9 shines…

What do you get when you take Brixton’s best-known brewery, its most historic cinema and its most innovative social enterprise scheme? If you add a good dose of all-British ingredients, and a name in no way inspired by A Certain Referendum you may have heard of… you get BRITZY XPA, our new one-off extra pale,…

Our new Ltd Edn range is what happens when we let our brewing imaginations run wild and see where it takes us… We’ve always said that our beers are all about balance – the right combination of bitter, sweet and crisp. We’ve never tried to be the hoppiest, the booziest, or the most out-there with…

In some ways, running a brewery has a soothingly timeless rhythm to it – the daily same-ness of making beer, testing beer, packaging beer and selling beer. In other ways, the quality of the beer and character of the brewery itself are shaped by the rhythms of seasons. We brew our beer in an arch…

Travel Series: Brixton Brewery In the last few years, London has become the European hub for craft beer. The community of brewers is growing with the increased interest and demand of drinkers, but the quality of the output seems to waiver very little and craft enthusiasts from around the world are paying attention. Brixton…

We’ve collaborated with renowned Belgian brewery Brasserie de la Senne to create Brixi Saison, a modern classic saison-style beer. In a further celebration of all that is so exciting about Brixton and beer these days, the striking label design uses the Connect Brixton print designed by EleyKishimoto as part of Brixton Design Week 2015. We…

Our label design (see above) once again uses vibrant colours and takes African batiks as its inspiration. The zig zag lines reflect the facade of the distinctive brutalist-inspired Barrier Block estate on Coldharbour Lane Our Coldharbour Lager made its debut just in time for Britain’s hottest June day on record. The heat wave was typically short-lived but…

This is the third in a series about the real-life inspiration for our beers, most of which are named for places around Brixton. Read Parts 1 & 2 here and here. We were still pretty young as a brewery when the brilliant people of Wahaca/DF Mexico approached us about doing a special beer for them.…

This is the second in a series about the real-life inspiration for our beers, which are named for places around Brixton. Read Part 1 here. Our Electric IPA is, appropriately enough, the strongest of all of our core beers at 6.5% abv. We don’t want to over-do the connection with conduction (there are pun hazards…

The word ‘Effra’ can be seen all over Brixton – the legendary Effra Hall Tavern, The Effra Social, Effra Road, Effra Parade. It seems an inextricable part of the many layers of Brixton. In this case, it’s the layer that flows deep beneath us. The River Effra is one of those evocative lost rivers of…

If things always went according to plan, this would be the blog post in which we looked back on our first year in business and reflected on how much we’ve learnt, how many steps forward, how many slips back, battles against red tape, new equipment and unfamiliar supply chains won and lost, etc. But…we quickly…

To celebrate reaching the 100 brew milestone we decided to venture into new territory and make an Imperial IPA. We named it MEGAWATT and think of it as Electric IPA’s big brother. It turned out at 8% on the nose and is hopped with tropical Topaz, Chinook and Mosiac. Two of which are totally new to…

Please join us at the brewery on Saturday19th July from 12-8pm for our Summer Party. We’ll have all our beers on draught including the debut of our Pale Ales on keg for the first time! Drop by en-route to Lambeth Country Show!